super mario bros
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Touch-sensitive Mario coin block lamp lights up our hearts
Interior design can be a challenge, especially when your passions in life aren't easily translated into creative and unique home decor. Gaming culture certainly produces its fair share of posters and wall decals, granted, but what if you're looking for something a little more elegant? What if you want your house guests to think "young professional," rather than "college bachelor?" For you, there is the Super Mario Coin Block Lamp from 8BitLit.Available for $74.99 at the company's Etsy shop, the lamp is made from laser-cut plexiglass and is illuminated by six LEDs. Switching the lamp on and off works exactly how you'd think, with each punch to the block's underside accompanied by an appropriate sound effect. Combine this thing with The Clapper and your apartment will be so smooth your guests will need guardrails.
NintendoWare Weekly: Metal Gear Solid 3D demo, Strider
The Metal Gear Solid 3D demo arrives today, accompanied by relatively big news on the Virtual Console! The first NES Ambassador game for 3DS is now available for purchase by non-Ambassadors! Super Mario Bros. is on the eShop now for five bucks. And if you already have it through the Ambassador Program, you can get a free update to add multiplayer and save states!There's also news for the Wii's Virtual Console: the Genesis version of Strider can be purchased today. We hadn't heard about a Genesis VC game in a while, so we looked into it. As far as we can tell, this is the first Genesis game on Wii in North America since Sonic & Knuckles, on February 15, 2010. It's been two years and a day since the last Genesis VC release.In fact, this appears to be the first Wii Virtual Console release of any kind since The Ignition Factor six months ago. Enjoy it! This doesn't happen very often.
New side-scrolling Super Mario headed to 3DS
Think New Super Mario Bros., but newer. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata assured investors today that a new 2D Super Mario game is in the works for 3DS, this one distinguished by its "side-scrolling action."Iwata offered no further information about the game in his presentation, but expects it to launch sometime within Nintendo's next fiscal year. That places the new Mario's debut sometime after March 2012 -- just far enough to complete Super Mario 3D Land and yearn for the days when things were nice and flat.
Super Mario Bros. updated for 3DS eShop release in Japan
Japan's 3DS eShop will offer another of the NES "Ambassador" games for sale next week -- an act that also means an updated version of the app for those who downloaded it for free. Following last week's release of The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. will be available on January 5. Those without 3DS diplomatic immunity will have to pay ¥500 ($6.44). The updated eShop versions of the Ambassador games add multiplayer, save state and sleep mode support and instruction manuals. So far, no NES games have been released on the eShop outside of Japan.
Goomba Roombas from SUPER iam8bit suck away the Monday blues
We realize nobody likes a Monday, but we've got something to help this one start off just a little cooler for you. From the floor of videogame-centric group art exhibition SUPER iam8bit, here's video of custom Koopa shell and Goomba Roomba covers that skittered across the show floor gobbling up everyone's Cheetoh crumbs. The custom mods are the handiwork of iRobot and fabricator Kelice Penney. Want to really chase away the Monday blues? Try saying "Goomba Roomba" out loud. Go on. We won't listen. ... There, isn't that better?
Super Pixel Bros is Super Mario for squares (video)
Is the complexity of regular Super Mario Bros. getting you down? Good news: modder Retro Brad has been putting a lot of time into his own version of the game, recreating levels of the original title on an 8 x 8 LED matrix, with all of its characters represented by a single pixel. Below that screen is an LCD, which lets users keep track of their score, lives and level, while a Monofonic Audio Chip offers sound effects played through a built-in speaker. All of this is housed in a portable eight-button system that, for the record, is decidedly less clunky than Nintendo's new circle-pad add-on for the 3DS. Video of Super Pixel Bros in action after the break.
Mario gets first-person in Unreal Engine 3
This isn't the first, second, or even third time that Mario's iconic Mushroom Kingdom has been translated into first person, but it is the first time anyone has ever associated the words "killing spree" and "goomba."
The Queue: The one with goombas
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today is a very special treat. We have your standard-length Queue, plus I answer a very exciting bonus trivia question that has nothing at all to do with World of Warcraft! But you will love it, my gamer pals. You will. Camero asked: In the past week, I've recieved four emails from "Blizzard" all asking me to do something in order to get a Winged Guardian License. I just wanted to confirm that's not true.
Record for lowest-scoring Super Mario Bros. run broken
You guys are still doing speed-runs? Psh, speed-runs are so 2005. These days, it's all about low-score runs; baffling attempts at calculated badness, wherein highly-skilled gamers do everything they can to do as little as possible. No one does better at doing poorly than YouTube power-gamer NotEntirelySure, who recently completed the lowest-scoring no-death game of Super Mario Bros. ever, finishing the entire game with a trifling 600 points. As a spectator sport, we think the low-score run has potential, although we're still not sure why our "average-score" runs never took off with the precision gaming community. [Thanks Gishman!]
Play For Japan: The Album helps rebuild Japan, available now
Announced last May and originally slated for a June release, Play For Japan: The Album is finally available for your listening pleasure. The album features original tracks by 18 of gaming history's greatest composers, including Silent Hill's Akira Yamaoka, Metal Gear Solid 4's Nobuko Toda, and if you buy the album from iTunes, Super Mario Bros.'s Koji Kondo. The album is already available via iTunes in the US, Canada, and UK, and will be available everywhere else (from iTunes and Amazon) starting July 15. It costs $9.99 USD, one hundred percent of which benefits the Japanese Red Cross' efforts in rebuilding Japan's infrastructure. It also benefits your eardrums. The full track listing is after the jump.
Bob Hoskins is not the biggest Super Mario Bros. fan
In a recent interview with Guardian, legendary actor Bob Hoskins went on record about the highlights of his prestigious cinematic career. In one section of the quickfire Q&A, Hoskins talked about one of his greatest film achievements to date: "What is the worst job you've done? Super Mario Brothers. What has been your biggest disappointment? Super Mario Brothers. If you could edit your past, what would you change? I wouldn't do Super Mario Brothers." We're having trouble comprehending why Hoskins is so hostile towards Cinergi Pictures' 1993 blockbuster -- we think it set the bar for video game-to-movie adaptations. It just set that bar very, very low. Like, low enough for Street Fighter to hurdle over with grace and ease, which is saying something. [Thanks, Chris!]
The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: True Fantasy Live Online
As an extremely amateur historian -- and an extremely attractive archaeologist -- I've always been fascinated with the "what ifs" of gaming's timeline. What if Blizzard had pulled the plug on World of Warcraft during development as it did for Warcraft Adventures? What if Hellgate: London had a lot more time and resources before it launched? What if North America had embraced the free-to-play model much earlier instead of the subscription model? What if Shawn came to his senses before he hired me? Life would've been a lot better. Or worse. That's the problem with counterfactual history: We can make educated guesses, but we'll never really know. While it's sad to see MMOs shut down due to underperformance, it's especially maddening to contemplate MMOs canceled before they even made it to the starting gate. In a new periodic series here at The Game Archaeologist, I'm going to look at a few of the "what ifs" of prematurely terminated MMORPGs. And to kick us off, I'm tackling probably one of the most frustrating, painful subjects that still linger amongst potential fans. I'm talking, of course, of True Fantasy Live Online, the game that could've shown the true potential of console MMOs. Or, y'know, not.
It's a giant Master Chief and Mario made out of ... balloons
They said you were a joke. They said you'd never be a somebody. They said your love of latex and highly volatile, unstable objects would be your downfall. Yeah, well who's laughing now? You've just made a life-size balloon sculpture of Master Chief and now he's your best friend ever.
Super Mario gets a Portal gun
Who needs to go hunting for warp zones at 1-2 or 4-2 in the original Super Mario Bros when you've got a portal gun? Portal one, portal two and voila! Princess is ready for a smooch.
Super Mario gets a Portal gun, you monster (video)
Before Portal 2 there was Portal, and before Portal there was Super Mario Bros. Bring these together and you get a mushroom-chomping Italian plumber ruling the 2D world -- outside the cold confines of Aperture Science -- with the infamous Portal gun. The next logical step? Turn this into a first-person game. Go on, Reggie, make it happen.
Tempest Freerunning Academy features Mario tribute
The recently opened Tempest Freerunning Academy in Los Angeles has put together a promotional video of its gym that hits several notes obligating us to write about it. The fantastic feats of athleticism in the clip begin with various free runners flipping, climbing and jumping across a set inspired by the 8-bit world of Super Mario Bros. The rest of the video just fills us with jealous awe, considering the closest we'll probably ever get to pulling off some of the featured stunts is when we play Mirror's Edge or the upcoming Brink. Actually, we take that back. We could totally do the stunts, but we'd have to call ahead to the hospital and pre-order a room first.
The Super Mario Bros. movie that should have been
Attendees of SXSW were privy to a trailer promising a more dramatic version of the tale of the brothers Mario. Now said trailer is online for all to see and we'd be remiss not to bring it to your attention. Joe Nicolosi's take on the Mushroom Kingdom is not only irresistible, it's pretty hilarious -- oh, and NSFW.
Building Mario in Tetris is tougher than you may think
No, seriously, watch the video past the break and you'll agree with us. It took YouTube user Shuey187 over 90 minutes -- and, sadly, he never finished the hat.
3DS Super Mario Bros. confirmed by Miyamoto
Just in case the very existence of the 3DS wasn't enough to convince you that there would eventually be a traditional Super Mario game for it, Nintendo has made it official. In the company's latest Iwata Asks feature, Mario maestro Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that a new Super Mario Bros. game is indeed underway for 3DS -- that's in addition to the upcoming iterations of Mario Kart and Paper Mario for the new handhled. "In the interests of adopting new technology for the Super Mario Bros. tradition, I am now making a new Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo 3DS system," Miyamoto revealed. "I want to show everyone as soon as possible what the new Super Mario Bros. will be like on the Nintendo 3DS," he added. We're going to go out on a limb and guess the new game will involve Mario and a daring royal rescue.
Nintendo denies use of Mario theme in Justin Bieber movie
According to a tweet from director John Chu, Nintendo prohibited a 15-second clip of the Super Mario Bros. theme song from being used in an upcoming film adaptation of pop prince Justin Bieber's life, Crank 3 Never Say Never. Chu seemed frustrated, but we understand why a company like Nintendo has to be so careful about how its flagship property is used. Also, our condolences to Justin Bieber, whom Nintendo apparently ranks just slightly below shampoo, cereal, slippers, piñatas, and, of course, this. Sleep well, buddy. Hey, maybe Chu should have just used it without asking. ... What's that, Captain Lou? ... Oh, OK, never mind.
